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Medicine Cellphones Displays Hardware Science Technology

Blue Light Like That From Smartphones Linked To Some Cancers, Study Finds (cnn.com) 140

A new study, published Monday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that exposure to the kind of blue light emitted by outdoor LEDs, smartphones and tablets may increase your risk of breast or prostate cancer. The study compared previous exposure to artificial lights at night between approximately 2,000 breast or prostate cancer patients and approximately 2,000 controls living in Barcelona and Madrid. Slashdot reader al0ha writes: This study seems to say that exposure to LED light temperatures higher than 3,000 Kelvin suppresses melatonin because it contains increased blue light, and at least one city (Davis, California) has gone to the expense of removing higher temperature LED lights and replacing them with ones that have lower color temperatures. Specifically, the study found that "those exposed to high levels of outdoor blue light at night had around a 1.5-fold higher risk of developing breast cancer and a twofold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, compared with those who were less exposed," reports CNN. "Men exposed to high levels of indoor artificial light also had 2.8-fold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, according to the study."
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Blue Light Like That From Smartphones Linked To Some Cancers, Study Finds

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  • Inconclusive (Score:5, Interesting)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Friday April 27, 2018 @07:52PM (#56516963) Journal

    "men who slept in “quite illuminated” bedrooms had a higher risk of prostate cancer (OR=2.79; 95% CI: 1.55, 5.04), whereas women had a slightly lower risk of breast cancer (OR=0.77; 95% CI: 0.39, 1.51)."

    It's not uncommon for a single study to show a statistically significant, or even dramatic, effect on cancer rates. Check out this graph for good examples [vox-cdn.com]. You can't say anything about these kinds of studies except, "was within the margin of error."

  • And notices entrainment of brain waves.
  • by schweini ( 607711 ) on Friday April 27, 2018 @08:11PM (#56517041)
    I don't know about cancer, but just for the sake of your eyes, get F.lux [justgetflux.com]!

    It automatically dials down the blue component of your screen at night (with a gradual transition). At the very beginning, it takes a minute or so to get used to, and might look weird.
    BUT! After using it for a couple of hours at night, I dare you to vidit a webpage with a white background, and turn it off for a second. Your eyes will hurt, and you will notice that looking at a monitor is like staring into a lightbulb at night. It's really painful.

    Please, just get F.lux!
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Turn the brightness down, dumbass.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Turn the brightness down, dumbass.

        The entire point of F.lux is to automate that process, dumbass.

      • In my limited experience, led lit monitors simply can not be dimmed as low at the cold cathode monitors could. I always kept those about 5 percent of brightness, now even set all the way down these led monitors are mostly still too bright for my liking.

        This is just silly, leds can be dimmed much better and easier than what was basically just fluorescent tubes. C'mon monitor manufacturers step up and allow a wider (in this case lower) range of brightness. It can't be that hard, I mean almost all the old big

    • I *HAD* F.lux, but Microsoft rolled out a new feature in Windows 10 called "Night Light" which does the exact same thing. Try it.
    • Please, just get F.lux!

      Because I have too much karma I'm going to say: Or just update to the latest version of Windows 10 which includes this feature natively :-)

    • Back in the good old days, we'd stare at our 60hz CRT's just to catch a buzz.
  • If you're looking at a white screen background after 10 PM, yes it's going to be difficult to sleep and your biological clock is probably getting messed up in ways that may harm your health.

    Certainly going to white on black, and dim, when you're reading to go to sleep helps. But not driving yourself so hard and having a life helps more.

    Think about not spending your entire life doing what others expect of you.

    • But more importantly, the blue component in that white light will suppress your body's production of melatonin, an extremely potent anti-oxidant known to have a statistical effect on your chances of getting cancer over the course of your life.

      But ya, I suppose we should throw that out the window and just try having a life.
      • You can supplement your melatonin. It's part of my travel regimen. But the reason you're looking at blue light when it can hurt you is that you're up too late.

        Also, you can go only so far with your antioxidants, since people have an oxidizing metabolism. People thought melatonin was a miracle drug a decade ago. It definitely helps with sleep, but didn't work any miracles regarding the rest.

        • Also, you can go only so far with your antioxidants, since people have an oxidizing metabolism. People thought melatonin was a miracle drug a decade ago. It definitely helps with sleep, but didn't work any miracles regarding the rest.

          This isn't wrong, and I didn't argue it.
          Missing a critical antioxidant the body has evolved to be there is however problematic.
          You *can* supplement it, as you said. And in which cases, I suspect your increased risk for cancer drops dramatically. As does not exposing yourself to high-temp light in the evening if you stay up late.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I hate white LEDs. They are now everywhere and they suck.

    Tried a few LED computer monitors and had to pawn them off on others because I couldn't stand using them. It's impossible to turn down the backlight because they are using PWMs and no matter what you do it is impossible to correct out the blue tinge from the crappy output spectrum especially at lower brightness levels.

    Finally found an oldschool but higher end CFL display on sale with LUTs and color calibrator. Had to eat into contrast a bit to get

    • This assessment of the current state of LEDs is spot on. Never had these types of problems with crts, which you could dim to almost black if you wanted - real nice at night. The reason the christmas lights are this way is that companies, er I mean customers will mostly just buy the cheap junk. The christmas lights could be so much better but customers won't pay for it when that cheap set next to it that pulses and burns out your eyeballs is two thirds the cost (on the plus side when that set rusts out in se

  • "Men exposed to high levels of indoor artificial light also had 2.8-fold higher risk of developing prostate cancer, according to the study."

    Uh... So why are so many men exposing their prostates to their cellphone lights at night?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 27, 2018 @10:30PM (#56517597)

    Gives new meaning to B.S.O.D...

  • light temperatures higher than 3,000 Kelvin

    Like, say, daylight? [wikipedia.org] I guess a person must always sit in the dark to avoid cancer...

    • Re:ORLY? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jblues ( 1703158 ) on Saturday April 28, 2018 @12:41AM (#56517941)
      Not that many people though are exposed to daylight at night.
    • Yes, bright daylight messes with your sleep hormones, which is why most people... sleep at night...
    • I've worked with LEDs, and what you're not considering is that daylight is a broad spectrum, and LEDs are multiple narrow bands. An LED that puts out light that averages the same temperature as daylight is actually very different. Maybe it is the same for some application, since the average is the same, but also maybe not.

      Beware of waving your hands and presuming you have knowledge. It is a lot easier to wave your hands and presume you have ignorance, and instead of preventing you from understanding new thi

      • Common white LEDs are actually blue LEDs coated with a yellowish phosphor. There are only 2 peaks, a somewhat narrow blue peak from the LED and a rather wide yellow peak from the phosphor. A google images search will produce many examples of this, and produce a better understanding than quibbling over words.
        • You didn't add anything to what I said, so I question if you even understood it since you replied anyways.

    • No. They should just avoid looking at daylight at night.

      Helps to RTFA.
  • Simple hypothesis far more likely than god damned melanin (what idiot thought of that?). Blue light causes you to get worse sleep. Plenty of studies on it, already confirmed. You get worse sleep, your body doesn't repair itself as well, including looking for errors during mitosis, your immune system doesn't hunt cancer as well, you're more likely to get cancer. Boom, easy.
    • Simple hypothesis far more likely than god damned melanin (what idiot thought of that?)

      That idiot is you, since that word exists neither in the study or summary.

      Blue light causes you to get worse sleep. Plenty of studies on it, already confirmed. You get worse sleep, your body doesn't repair itself as well, including looking for errors during mitosis, your immune system doesn't hunt cancer as well, you're more likely to get cancer. Boom, easy.

      While you're probably not wrong, that's not the critical path here.
      Blue light inhibits melatonin, a very potent antioxidant.

  • Correlative study.....Guess what people who spend a lot of time out at night do? Drink, Smoke, do drugs.....lose sleep......Wow.,.....hmmmm....I wonder if it could be any of those things rather than fucking blue light that we get all fucking day long.

  • by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Saturday April 28, 2018 @03:37PM (#56520611) Homepage

    Like the subjects says. "Horse shit"

    • by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      It's only horseshit to close minded people.

      There is a whole new section of science that treats injuries with laser light. https://paindoctor.com/red-lig... [paindoctor.com] . I had a foot injury. I was very skeptical, however I could barely walk. I was thinking I may have to get my foot cut off it hurt so bad. Think about that a moment. Just how much that would have to hurt for someone to think that's a good idea to cut their foot off. My Daughter took me in after hours, used it and oh man the difference. I had to come back

      • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

        There is a difference between treating someone with a laser and just plain blue light. A laser actually does transmit energy. That energy will be translated in to heat and there is scientific evidence that heat has some healing and therapeutic properties.

        This is just plan blue light so again, Horse Shit.

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